The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo SAN, at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday, made a seeming self-defeatist criticism against President Muhammadu Buhari that the appointment of Minister of State is unconstitutional.

Keyamo, a principal beneficiary of the “unconstitutional” appointment of a minister of state by the president, cited certain sections of the Nigerian constitution to prove that his statement is not “out of ingratitude but as his contribution to the nation’s constitutional development as a relatively young democracy and to aid future governments to optimize the performance of those they appoint as ministers”.

Keyamo had argued that “it is difficult to assess the individual performances of the Ministers of State since their discretion was shackled with the discretion of the Ministers as any original ideas developed by a Minister of State are subject to clearance by another colleague in the cabinet before they can sail through for consideration by Council”.

However, some stakeholders in the country have expressed that Keyamo’s outburst is belated, adding that his moralistic repentance at the point of exist of the federal cabinet of the Buhari administration is self-defeatist.